Sweden, 1979

We spent the night in Denmark, then took the short ferry ride to Helsingborg, Sweden. From there we were advised to take a certain road to Lake Vatern because of the view, but it was so rainy and cloudy we could have saved the time and effort. However, the campsite at the lakeside, was very nice.

We found Stockholm to be unusually interesting. There are islands and water all-round. We ate lunch at the Hotel Sheraton, and the waiter was very unhappy that Americans visiting Stockholm expected to be served water at no extra cost.

The campsite in Stockholm was near the Bredang, Tunnelbana (subway) station, so for a couple of days, by subway and bus we visited several islands, the amusement park, and rode to the top of the TV tower. We visited the palace, and the rooms open to the public. Stockholm is built on a gigantic rock. At many places there are massive boulders sticking out of the ground, and the subway tunnel is often just natural rock.

After a couple of days in Stockholm we boarded the ferryboat to Helsinki, Finland, and ate dinner in the ship’s dining room. A beautiful sunset, and a pleasing overnight trip. After a week in Finland we boarded the ferryboat at Vasa, Finland, for the six or seven hour ride to Sundsvall, Sweden. Smorgasbord in the boat’s restaurant, cost about $7 or $8 each.

When we arrived in Sweden it was dark, the campsite was closed for the season, and the hotel was sold out for the night. The woman at the hotel desk invited us to park our RV in the hotel parking lot, which we did, and that was fine.

We found a large Esso gasoline terminal, and they filled our cooking gas tank. The regular pump had the wrong hose connection for the USA fixture on our cooking gas tank. The big delivery truck had the right connection, but no meter. They put in “some” and waved good-by, no charge, as they didn’t know how much they gave us. It would have been a couple of dollars worth, at most.

Now we drove across this narrow part of Sweden (stopped at Osterlund) and visited a fantastically large and interesting waterfall near Are, Sweden. The roads are very wide and have a wide paved shoulder. Many people, on the shoulder of the highway, are using a five or six feet long ski-like thing with wheels, to practice Nordic winter skiing. Later we crossed a corner of Sweden, then caught the ferry boat at Goteborg, Sweden, on our way from Oslo, Norway to Denmark.